Skinner won’t serve in a unified police force
There is a movement in my nation towards the creation of a single Scottish police force. The proposal had the support of both main parties in the run-up to last week’s Holyrood parliamentary elections, and given the SNP landslide, there’s every reason to believe that it will happen. Although I’m a fervent Nationalist, I’m deeply opposed to this. I believe that if anything Scotland has too few chief constables, not too many, and I’m appalled by the prospect of top-level decisions on the policing of our northern communities, and of the islands being taken by a silver-braided figure hundreds of miles away, with no idea of local needs, priorities and conditions. There’s also the potential for the politicising of the police service, something we should all oppose.
If I’m against this, then in all conscience, Big Bob has to be also. The twenty-first Skinner novel, “Grievous Angel”, has been on the stocks for months, and is published in four weeks. It takes a look at the hero’s past life, but next year’s will be set very much in the present and will tackle this issue head on. It’ll make it very clear that for Bob, this threat in my world is a resignation issue in his. I don’t want him to leave the force, but make no mistake, if this proposal comes to pass, he will. This is no bluff. This dangerous idea needs to be opposed and my man is in the vanguard of the protest movement.
Would that be the end of him and the series?
No way! There are many alternative career options for him to explore. I’m already planning for his life outside the force, and I’m looking forward to extending the series to at least thirty books . . . preferably with him as a serving police officer, God and Alex Salmond willing. Or are they one and the same, after last week’s election result?
Quintin Jardine's blog 
I too would be opposed to a national police force. But would it really be so bad? After all Skinner himself is head of a Force which covers the capital as well as the rural Borders, thus demonstrating that one administration can work for two totally different environs! I will be interested to read how Skinner is going to tackle his opposition to any attempts to create a single force, but then his wife is known to oppose such a proposal or is this going to the end of another Skinner marriage? Hope not.
Watch this space, in or around June 2012.